Birthday Bug Chapter Two:
It had been a week now since Abby's birthday and things were going well for her. She had recovered from her birthday flu and was back in the ER now at almost a hundred percent. Tonight after her shift she and Carter were going to go out for dinner. He had asked her a couple of days ago and she didn't see any reason to tell him no. It would do her a world of good to get out and socialize a little.
Their relationship hadn't been all roses up until now, and they didn't have much of one right now either. They had managed to maintain the air of being friends, but that was about it. Abby didn't know if that was something that would change or if they were destined to just be good friends. After all you could never have too many friends.
Abby finished up her shift and headed home. After her EL train ride home, she let herself into the cold apartment, the heat not having kicked back in yet. She cranked it up hoping that she wouldn't freeze after she got out of the shower, right now she just wanted to wash the ER away.
A half hour later, a freshly showered Abby started to get dressed. She hadn't asked Carter where they were going so she wasn't sure just what she should wear. She just knew that she didn't have all that much time to finish getting ready before he would be there. She finally decided on black slacks and a black pullover sweater. Not dressy, but not completely casual either a combination of both. She gave herself a once over in the mirror, putting on lipstick just to wipe it off again. She never was happy with the shade that she picked. Hopefully she was dressed alright for where they were going, with Carter one could never tell.
She heard the knock on the door that she had been expecting and walked over to answer it. "Come on in John." Abby said with a soft smile on her face.
He held out flowers for her. "These are for you."
"Thank you." She laughed a little when she noticed that they were dead ones. Impressed that he remembered that she liked dried flowers.
"You about ready to go?" Carter asked her.
"Yeah I am." Abby said as she sat the flowers down on the kitchen table. She was looking forward to having dinner with him tonight. She just wouldn't tell him that. He could be a very charming man when he wanted to, but he could also be a stubborn jackass.
"Then shall we?" Carter held out his arm for her to take as they started back down to the street and to his car.
"Where are we going?" Abby asked in a soft small voice.
"A little restaurant that I just happened to stubble across," he said with a kind smile. "You like pasta right?"
"Yeah I do." Abby replied back as he opened up the car door for her.
"That's good."
After making sure that she was settled in the car, Carter closed the door for her and got in on the other side. He started them off down the Chicago streets for the small restaurant that he had driven by the other day but didn't have the time to stop and actually go inside. They were rather silent in the car but neither of them seemed to find it that much.
He found a place to park near it and he jumped out running around to open the door for her offering Abby his arm again before heading inside. The restaurant was indeed small and intimate. The perfect place for dinner and conversation if that was what you were looking for, but for some reason tonight the silence seemed to sit between them really well.
What did they have to talk about, there wasn't much right now. They could talk about the weather, work, but neither of them really wanted to talk about those things.
"So Abby, what looks good to you tonight?" Carter asked breaking the silence that was between them.
"Kind of hard to decide." She replied back her eyes going between the menu that she had opened in front of her and him.
"Yeah, it all sounds good." He finally set his down on the table. Carter couldn't stop staring at Abby there was something about the way that she looked in the soft candle light that had him captivated.
"I am thinking that the Angel hair pasta with the mushrooms and chicken sounds pretty good, I think I will have that." She set the menu down on the table in front of her now too. She realized that she didn't have it to hide behind now and it wasn't that she was nervous, well maybe she was a little bit. She didn't know if it was nerves or if it was the fact that sometimes as good as silence might be it made things feel just a tad bit awkward.
They ordered dinner and conversation between them remained sparse and words were few and far between when they did manage to find something to talk about. The food coming to the table was a welcomed reprieve for both of them, for neither could expect the other one to talk if they were eating.
They shared desert, death by chocolate, and then Carter slowly walked her back out to the car before once again making sure that she was settled in before getting in himself. This was an awkward date even though neither of them wanted it to be.
Abby didn't want to rush it, thinking that if there was going to be anything between them that they needed to take it slow. Carter didn't want to screw anything up. He wanted to rekindle what they had but he also didn't want to rush it.
There was a natural attraction between Carter and Abby, it was something that they could both feel, something that they both wanted to act on, but neither wanted to sacrifice what friendship that they had on that off chance that the other one wasn't feeling the same thing that they were.
He parked the car on the street in front of her apartment and then walked up with her so that she wouldn't be alone in the late hour.
"I had a nice time tonight Abby." Carter said as they reached her door.
Abby was digging out her keys now, but she looked up at him with a smile on her face. "I did too John. It was a very nice evening."
"I'm glad you had a good time."
"Yeah me too."
"You think that maybe you might like to go to the movies with me next Friday night?" Carter asked. One date down and he was hoping that there would be a few more, each one less awkward than the one before, but they both knew that this was something that they were going to need to take slow in order to make it work.
"I would like that John." Abby said with that same soft smile on her face, "just let me know what time, I think that if I have to work," which Abby knew that she probably did, but she had been lucky getting the day shifts for the most part, "I'll be off around seven, we can catch one after that."
"I'll call you later about it, or we can talk about it when we see each other at work." Right now he was just happy that she had said yes.
"Sounds good to me." Abby said standing up on her tip toes to gently kiss his cheek. "Good night John." She put her keys in the lock turning them as she glanced at him once more.
"Good night Abby." John replied to her retreating form. As he walked back down towards his car he had a giant smile on his face.
She put her things on the table and flopped down on the couch with a smile on her face, while tonight had been far from perfect, it hadn't been a disaster either. She had, had a good time while she was out with him and hoped that the next date would be as nice, if not better than this one. She also knew that with a little bit of time and some work from both of them, they would be able to work their way back to each other. It was just a matter of time and a whole lot of baby steps.